More than an Obituary for Ginny Dobbs (based on the 4/8/18
obituary of Genevieve “Ginny Dobbs/Steed-Gideon, Arizona Daily Star)
Ginny and Tom had a dream and ran a motel by that name,
Dream House. Still located on Miracle
Mile, back in the late 1940s it pulled in a steady stream of road trippers. Maybe a few babies were made on the bed sheets
Ginny washed and dried; maybe a few lovers hid behind the curtains she sewed.
When the freeway was built, the motel income faded along
with the bed sheets and curtains. So
Ginny and her husband turned to other small businesses; they always ran them
smart. Tucson was a growing town and
folks needed furniture and cars needed repairs.
When the repairs couldn’t keep cars running, a wrecking yard stocked
with vehicles, broken concrete and spooled wires was the next venture for Ginny
and Tom.
Gifted with a business mind, bouncy smile and sparkling
eyes, Ginny could warm the hearts of customers and sometimes charm them with
freshly baked goods. After her Tom died,
Ginny kept busy with cooking, sewing, and tending grandchildren. Never one to be idle, she managed the family businesses
and became an admissions clerk at St. Mary’s Hospital.
She lived a long life of ninety-four years. Probably not a remarkable woman in a large
sphere of life, but her face in the local paper’s obituary column pulled me in
and my eyes set on the pearls in her ears, and the pearl strand around her
neck. Maybe her husband gave her that
matching set for an anniversary gift. I can
see her touching them like a rosary before she put them on for church or
special occasions. They would be
precious to her for decades, but now they lie in a green velvet box, in a
drawer, covered, like a shroud, by one of her pressed cotton handkerchiefs.
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